Quotes from Alexandre Dumas

had been awakened from its long sleep and come to life; it sang and blossomed like one of those houses that we have long cherished and in which, when we are unfortunate enough to leave them, we involuntarily relinquish a part of our souls.

this is the secret of my conduct towards you. There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.

For some constitutions work is the cure for all ills.

But I lay aside that pride before God, who has taken me from nothing to make me what I am

finally, that the queen wants a brave, intelligent, devoted man to make a journey to London for her. I have at least two of the three qualities you stand in need of, and here I am.

So Dantès, who three months earlier had wanted nothing except freedom, felt already not free enough, but wanted wealth. It was not the fault of Dantès, but of God who, while limiting the power of man, has created in him infinite desires!

He was the friend of the king, who honored highly, as everyone knows, the memory of his father, Henry IV.

all human wisdom is contained in the words 'wait and hope!

It is a kind of dizzying comfort to contemplate the open abyss when, at the bottom of that abyss, lies nothingness.

Life is so uncertain, that we ought to secure happiness while it is within our reach.

In every country where independence takes the place of liberty, the first need felt by any strong mind and powerful constitution is to possess a weapon which can serve both for attack and defence; and which, by making its bearer formidable, will mean that he often inspires dread.

Why,' said he, 'does not the emperor, who has devised so many clever and efficient modes of improving the art of war, organize a regiment of lawyers, judges and legal practitioners, sending them in the hottest fire the enemy could maintain, and using them to save better men?

All charitable souls are requested to pray God for the sincere repentance of these two miserable creatures.

What is it? said Jeanne, when Diana was gone; you look rather gloomy. Why, yes. What has happened? Oh, mon Dieu! an accident. To you? Not precisely to me, but to a person who was near me. Who was it? The person I was walking with. M. de Monsoreau? Alas! yes; poor dear man. What has happened to him? I believe he is dead. Dead! cried Jeanne, starting back in horror. Just so. He who was here just now talking… Yes, that is just the cause of his death - he talked too much.

Non vi sono né felicità né infelicità assolute in questo mondo, vi è soltanto il paragone tra una condizione e l'altra, ecco tutto. Solo colui che ha provato l'estremo dolore è atto a gustare la più grande felicità.

You cannot control circumstances, my dear sir; 'man proposes, and God disposes.

It is no use, said the old man, there is no wine. What, no wine? said Dantes, turning pale, and looking alternately at the hollow cheeks of the old man and the empty cupboards.

Alas, mother, there are people who have suffered greatly, and who did not die, but raised a new fortune on the ruins of all those promises of happiness that heaven had made to them, and on the debris of all the hopes that God had given them!

Believe me, when a woman loves a man, you do not win her heart by crossing swords with him.

Come, come. Enough of poison. Now that my heart is full of it, let us go and find the antidote.

Alas, alas!' Andrea said, with a sigh. 'One can never be completely happy in this world.

Remember, the execution is fixed for the day after tomorrow, and that you have but one day to work in. And what of that? Is not a day divided into twenty-four hours, each hour into sixty minutes, and every minute sub-divided into sixty seconds? Now in 86,400 seconds very many things can be done.

Ah, but the friends of to-day are the enemies of to-morrow;

although a companion is agreeable, perfect freedom is sometimes still more agreeable. I